FACTS which contradict what is taught in the universities and which even run counter to the assumptions made by critics of misandry.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Netta Heiland & Bridgett Reilly, New York City Badger Game Girls - 1892

FULL
TEXT:New York is just now enjoying the
details of a rare case of blackmail in which one of her most respected citizens
appears to be the victim.

The
history of the time is dotted with strange instances of blackmail being levied
upon men whose wealth or position makes them shining marks tor designing and
clever rogues, but this case seem to have some features out of the ordinary.

Nearly
every one of the California millionaires have in turn been subjected to
blackmailing schemes by designing women. Living in an atmosphere of license,
they were assailed at the weakest point, and it would be strange indeed if some
of them were not occasionally trapped. The man who is at all times proof
against every passion of his nature has not yet been born.

Even
the late merchant prince, Alexander T. Stewart, cold and correct as he was,
became the target for the shaft of the female blackmailing archer.

Of
all the influences that sway mankind none is so strong as the influence of sex.
It dominates all others. It is knowledge of this influence of the actions – God
given and proper when under control – that makes the professional blackmailer
fish for men’s fortunes and their souls, and the bait is always a woman.

Charles
Broadway Rouss is a unique figure in New York commercial life. Making no claim
to the advantages of birth or education, he is a natural man, with the faults
and foibles of anatural man.

But
he has also the virtues of a strong and manly character. He has never been
accused of being a hypocrite and he is not afraid of hard work. It is by the
hardest of hard work and the greatest application that he has accumulated the
fortune, a large slice of which Bridget Reilly’s advisors are now anxious to
transfer to their own coffers.

Bridget
came over from Ireland a year or so ago. She was pretty, with dark eyes and
raven tresses, and was soon employed by Netta Heiland, Mr. Rouss’ pretty
housekeeper. Now Bridget wants the modest sum of $50,000 in payment for the
injury done her name by Rouss. The New York police say that it is impossible
that this bold scheme could have originated in the simple brain of the raw
emigrant girl, to whom a few hundred dollars a few weeks ago would have seemed
a competency. But there are designing men and women in New York, both in and
out of the legal profession, and the slightest slip is seized on as a peg to
hang a suit upon, if the proposed victim is but big enough game. And so Bridget
is advised her friends that the merchant can be squeezed to the tune of
$50,000. How much of this large sum the girl would receive, supposing the
lego-squeezing process to be successful, is a problem that would require a very
astute philosopher to solve.

Mr.
Rouss’ case is simply this: His housekeeper employed a comely and lively
emigrant girl as domestic in the household. The girl from time to time put
herself in the merchant’s way, and he was in the habit of giving her small
presents of money he was overcome bythe blandishments of the too willing daughter of Eve, who omitted
the time honored formulaof
“swearing she would ne’er consent.” He is not hypocrite enough to claim that he
acted the part of Joseph, but he was liberal to the girl in the matter of money.

She
presented herself at his store last December, scarcely half clad, and invoked
his assistance. She stated that Mr. Rouss’ housekeeper had quarreled with her
and turned her out after locking up her clothes. In sympathy for tier condition
he save her more money and she found lodgment where, at her request, he visited
her.

The
girl afterwards became a confidant of the housekeeper, whose part in the whole
scheme will probably be exploited at the trial. It might seem like a mixing of metaphor
to refer to a woman as the Ethiopian in the wood pile, yet the facts in the
case point to a conclusion, and the trial may uncover the greatest nest of
organized blackmailers in this or any other country with Netta Heiland as a
leading figure among them.